Friday, July 27, 2007

The terrorism charge against Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef has been dropped due to lack of evidence. But despite admitting that the Australian Federal Police had "made a mistake", the Australian government is not apologising (far from it), and is apparently still planning to deport him despite the "evidence" against him having been shown to be simply false.

There'll be a press conferance in about 15 minutes from the Immigration Minister on the deportation decision.

Update: It seems I spoke too soon - Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews has restored Haneef's visa. After the way he's been treated, he may still want to leave Australia and never come back, but at least he won't have a vindictive deportation preventing him from travelling in future.

All in all, a victory for justice - and a defeat for John Howard.

Update 2: Or not. It certainly seemed that way earlier, but now it appears Haneef's visa has not been restored, and that he is now being held in something called "residential detention" (which no-one, not even his lawyers, seem to have heard of), while the Minister desperately looks for information to justify kicking him out reviews his decision. So, the Howard government are bastards once again, willing to continue to ruin an innocent man's life rather than admit they were wrong. Pricks.